Science / Marine Biology Glossary

Biotic Factor: A living component of the environment which arises from and affects living organisms (distinct from physical factors). For example, the interaction between predators and prey is a biotic int . . . View Full Definition

Blood Pigment: A molecule used by an organism to transport oxygen efficiently, usually in a circulatory system (e.g., hemoglobin)

Bloom (Phytoplankton): A population burst of phytoplankton that remains within a defined part of the water column

Bohr Effect: When blood ph decreases, the ability of hemoglobin to bind to oxygen decreases. An adaptation to release oxygen in the oxygen starved tissues in capillaries where respiratory carbon dioxide . . . View Full Definition

Boreal: Pertaining to the Northern Hemisphere, north temperate zone

Boring: Capable of penetrating a solid substratum by scraping or chemical dissolution

Bottom-Up Control: Refers to food webs. A control of a population that comes from change lower in a food web (e.g., control of a population of mussels by abundance of phytoplankton food).

Boundary Layer: A layer of fluid near a surface, where flow is affected by viscous properties of the fluid. At the surface, fluid velocity must be zero, and the boundary layer is a thin film that depends on . . . View Full Definition

Brackish Sea: Semienclosed water body of large extent in which tidal stirring and seaward flow of freshwater do not exert enough of a mixing effect to prevent the body of water from having its own interna . . . View Full Definition

Browsers: Organisms that feed by scraping thin layers of living organisms from the surface of the substratum (eg., periwinkles feeding on rock-surface diatom films; urchins scraping a thin, filmy spon . . . View Full Definition

Calcareous: Made of calcium carbonate

Carnivore: An organism that captures and consumes animals

Carrying Capacity: The total number of individuals of a population that a given environment can sustain

Catadromous Fish: Fish that spawns in seawater but feed and spends most of its life in estuarine or fresh water

Chaetognaths: See Arrowworms

Character Displacement: A pattern in which two species with overlapping ecological requirements differ more when they co-occur than when they do not. The difference is usually in a morphological feature related to . . . View Full Definition

Chemosynthesis: Primary production of organic matter, using various substances instead of light as an energy source; confined to a few groups of microorganisms

Chlorinity: Grams of chloride ions per 1000 grams of seawater

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